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The Mac build works just fine.

It's a like a free-roaming version of The Sentinel, but the bounciness of the replication means getting used to imprecision. "Eh, somwhere over there will hopefully do." The mechanic is interesting enough that I'd like to see it used in a larger game. It reminds me of a similar FPS game in which the player has to avoid drones and can't move, only jump directly to any visible surface (can't remember the name).

I'm amused that there's no safeguard for destroying the last drone. I suppose disappointing the people is punishment enough.

Great, thank you.

Please upload an Intel Mac build of 0.735.

There is a 78-sided die (hexakis chamfered cube). I used it to make a tarot die with values as strings (e.g. Ace of Wands, Ten of Swords, Lovers), and faces display as abbbreviated strings (e.g. AW, TS, 06). Takes a while to enter all the information, but you only have to do it once.

I had been playing for a bit over a week when I noticed that the world number starts at zero, not at one, so I couldn't have bought the dead god's flesh on the first day. Trying to pull that out of my daily rolls would have been too complicated, so I just started over and caught up. Fortunately I hadn't yet bought a garden plot.

Bummer, hope that doesn't stress you out too much. Please make another development post when the files are available.

Any news on when this will be available for purchase?

Trying the game again today, I discovered that there are now separate vendors for powerups and for map pieces, the latter of which look like large printers. I also discovered strange post-death behavior: the little man turns into a translucent sort of angel, I hear sort of rushing sound, I slowly drift upward, I can fly in any direction, and I can no longer interact with anything. None of the ABXY buttons do anything. Turning on permadeath has no effect on the game state immediately, but when I reloaded the page and re-entered the game, it had started over. I turned off permadeath again, intentionally killed myself, then reloaded the game. When I re-entered the world the game started at the second before I landed on spikes.

Thanks for the reply. I hadn't thought to check the options. Music off by default does make sense, and having to re-enable it each time isn't too big a burden.

I got so familiar with the music in the starting room of seed 0 when working on my mapping project. While the music is part of the game's charm, it can be grating in some rooms. If you want to try some different methods of creating the music, check this script: https://github.com/bob-the-hamster/autoautotracker (or the original at https://github.com/wibblymat/ld24/blob/master/autotracker.py). (VLC can play the resulting files, if you don't have a tracker file player.). While you wouldn't be able to use the code directly, how that script generates tunes might give you ideas.

Another aspect of the music system that can be jarring is the music for a room restarting every time I enter it. Have you considered a global music timer, with the music in each room starting according to that timer rather than from the beginning? That would give a smoother experience when moving between rooms. As an example, Night in the Woods uses this method. The exterior world has its music, and the interior of each location has its own different music. When I enter a location the exterior music fades and the interior music starts, but when I go back outside the exterior music resumes as if it had been playing silently in the background and was just being turned back up.

I do still have "0a" as the seed in one browser, so I'll leave that one as is. If I try another mapping project, to see how the newer world generation compares, I'll use seed "a".

Assuming this works, I've added two images: the first is the entire map, and the second is the same map with labels. "V" is vendors, "C" is map coin, and powerups are named. (I think I missed a couple map coins, but I can't check that now.) I had started tracing the progression path but didn't get past the first few powerups, so I left that out. The numbers are the order in which I took the screenshots, which roughly shows the path.

It's been some time since I played Hopworld. Your recent post reminded me about it, so I tried it to check the new world generation. Right away I noticed there was no music. The different music for each room is one of the things I remembered most about my previous playthrough, but now I don't hear that. Sound still works, so it's not just an audio issue. To make sure, I tried with multiple different browsers (Firefox, Chromium, Safari), but none played music. Did you remove that?

Is it possible to play older versions of the game? Quite a while ago I made an effort to map the entire world of seed 0. I still have that map, but after the world generation was overhauled (probably the changes you described in the January 2023 blog post), I can no longer play that world.

Nicely done! Mechanically I think the game could have been implemented in Puzzlescript, but making it in PICO-8 let you add more graphical flair.

In addition to complementing you on the compact puzzle design, I want to call out the excellent graphics. Everything is instantly discernable purely by color.

Nicely done! Like someone else, my sticking point was rotation, then discovering the limits of shoving squares around. Getting to the last two erasers was a treat.

Adventure 02 works just fine. I noticed that you changed the exit identifiers in 02 versus the others. In 00 and 01, the adjacent exits are lettered identically, so the two letters at each edge are identical. In 02, each letter corresponds to the next card in that direction, so the letters are different at each edge. That method looks a bit strange, but it makes more sense since the order in which the player explores the cards isn't forced like the first two quests.

The system reminds me of Mazescape, a series of puzzle games involving tracing a maze on a sheet that can be folded and unfolded while tracing.

Thanks for the correction. I think there may still be an error on the back of page two. Swap the items in the top corners (so 1? will be on the back of the Shenbot statue and [1] will be on the back of the jump shoes), then everything makes sense.

Are sets 00 and 01 impossible? In set 00 the grappling hook can't be found. In set 01 the grappling hook is found in the room with many spike pits, but the pits can't be crossed without already having the grappling hook. The jump shoes are similarly unreachable without already having them.

Thank you! Time to shoot down some alien invaders.

Please upload an Intel Mac build of version 0.666. I'm anxious to try the new stuff.

Nicely done!

Please upload the Intel version of the Mac build.

I see the Mac Intel of the update. Thanks!

I see the Steam key now as well. I wasn't expecting that when I bought the game here instead of there, so it's a bonus for me. Getting the game here means I can compare builds as you update the game. The new playing field feels almost claustrophobicly short compared to what I remember, but since I kept the previous version I can confirm my impression.

When will the Intel Mac version of 0.656 be available?

I'm a sucker for harmonic motion animations, and the arrangement of colors adds a neat secondary layer of cycles.

Nicely done. Playing through it a second time I felt much more confident in what I needed to do to orient the book correctly to safely move flowers.

I found a small bug: if I push a flower vertically with the open book, but the flower is against the edge of the level with nothing else on the other side of it, the book breaks apart vertically. I noticed this in the penultimate level, and it's easier to test in the final level. The same thing doesn't happen if I try to push a flower against a wall block with the open book, so it seems to hinge on a subtle distictinction between "flower can't move because it's against a block" vs "flower can't move because it's against the edge of the level". I don't think this behavior can be used to cheat the penultimate level, but I haven't investigated much.

Took a bit to figure out the half-pipe mechanic. The hidden trophies were a nice touch.

The Mac version works just fine.

Nicely done. Took some doing, but I did find both endings. The gravity mechanic is a bit finicky near the edges of islands. I like the use of Crocotile.

I found a runtime error on level 16, when I accidentally tried to push the line of three cops left when they were already at the left edge. Trying to push cops off a road in other directions didn't have any effect, so it seems to matter that they were against the edge of the map.

Thanks! That explanation makes sense. I tested the new version (0.21.3), and it did fix the bug.

I started a game of Dig mode to try the new version. As soon as I made a line containing bombs, the track Trance Dance started playing at maximum volume, playing over the other track I'd chosen. That music kept playing after I quit the game, navigated the menu, and started another game. This behavior isn't triggered in Marathon mode. I haven't tested all the other modes. More details:

- Completing a line that does not contain bombs does not trigger the music.
- Completing a single line containing bombs does not trigger the music.
- Completing two or more lines with bombs triggers the music, with multiple instances of the track playing simultaneously. (It's possible that more lines cleared triggers more instances, but it's difficult to tell.)
- The music will trigger even if I set the music track to "Off".
- If I set music volume to zero in the options, I won't hear the music when I clear multiple lines. However, if I quit the game, go back to the options, and increase the music volume, the stacked tracks will immediately start playing at maximum volume.

I encountered this behavior on a Mac, running MacOS 14.5. I couldn't reproduce the behavior in the Windows version, so the bug seems to be Mac-specific.

Bravo! A common approach to puzzles like this is to introduce new concepts gradually, then test the player on whether they understand them. You've thrown us in the deep end instead, and this puzzle is better for it.

Nicely done. The concept seems worth exploring further, but I appreciate that this gives us just a taste.

Nicely done. How many endings are possible? I found three (encoded for spoilers, go to rot13.com to decode):

ercryyvat nyy uhzna bpphcvrq pvgvrf
trggvat rabhtu fpvrapr be ohyvqvat rabhtu bofreingbevrf

trggvat uhzna bcvavba gb znkvzhz

I tried for a fourth, but I'm not sure it's possible before getting of the above:

trggvat eng cbchyngvba gb fbzr nofheqyl uvtu ahzore

Wow. I wish I could be more eloquent than that. Maybe later. Wow.

Bravo! The use of wavy text for the (entity?) on the other end of the radio was a nice touch. Just enough tension and weirdness.

Watch the enemy's spells carefully and note their effects.

Use rot13.com to decode these:

Hint: Oyhr pelfgnyf pna gryrcbeg bgure pelfgnyf.

Solution: Zbir gur evtug pelfgny qbja, hfr gur yrsg pelfgny gb syvat gur evtug pelfgny npebff gur tnc. Gung bcraf gur jnl gb jnyx qbja naq nebhaq gb gur evtug. Hfr gur cerivbhfyl syhat pelfgny gb syvat lbhefrys gb gur rkvg.

Encoded using rot13.com to prevent spoilers:

Ol zbivat yheqe dhvpxyl, V pna fnir bar bs gur erq pelfgnyf sebz gur sveronyyf, gura hfr gung gb qrfgebl gur oybpx va gur zvqqyr bs gur yrsg nern. Vf gung vagraqrq, be vf gur chmmyr cbffvoyr gb fbyir jvgubhg fnivat gur erq pelfgny?

Looking forward to seeing how this develops. A little bit Downwell, a little bit Probability 0.

Hah, so it is! I must have made an error when trying to duplicate my paper solution.

I think I did solve it, by printing a screenshot on paper and cutting it apart.

Use rot13.com to read the following:

Chg gur gvyrf va vapernfvat beqre jvgu bar va gur gbc evtug pbeare, gura yrsg npebff gur gbc, qbja gura evtug ba gur arkg ebj, naq fb ba. Gung znxrf bar pbagvahbhf yvar guebhtu nyy gur gvyrf. Gur ivqrb irefvba pnaabg or fbyirq, orpnhfr gur ynfg gjb gvyrf ner fjnccrq.

Been a while, so I had to replay to get it. Use rot13.com to decode the following hints one line at a time as you need.

znxr guveglgjb
va gur zvqqyr
jvgu rvtug naq sbhe
znxr gjraglsbhe
va gbc
jvgu rvtug naq guerr
znxr avarglfvk
jvgu guerr
naq cerivbhf gjraglsbhe